


Fairies

by J_Q



Series: TIMELESS [7]
Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Canon Divergent, M/M, domestic life, parenting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-01
Updated: 2018-02-01
Packaged: 2019-03-12 04:43:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13539918
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/J_Q/pseuds/J_Q
Summary: J_Q asked for reader prompts for the Timeless AU where Mickey and Ian get together in season 7 instead of season 1 and live happily ever after.BookJunkie11 didn’t actually reply…she was minding her business leaving thoughtful, heartwarming comments and J_Q took it upon herself to turn one of her innocent comments into a short story.





	Fairies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BookJunkie11](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookJunkie11/gifts).



 

“Dads, we need to talk,” Yev said as he walked out of his bedroom in his dinosaur jammies. The t-rex on the front announcing that  _Roar_ means I love you in dinosaur. Coming to stand directly in front of the television with his little face scrunched in confusion and deep thought, he faced his Dads who were squished to one side of the couch like usual. Dad had his long legs pulled up into crossed legs, and he was sitting sideways on the sofa with his diary in his lap. He writes ideas and stuff in there and sometimes reads parts of it to Yev, especially the parts about what Yev does that makes him proud.

Yev was looking at Ian’s legs with yearning. The way they were crossed would make a fun chair for him. He’d fit perfectly. But first he had to get some answers to some disturbing questions.

So his eyes moved to his other Dad, who was slumped down on the couch with his feet on the coffee table and a beer bottle in his hand. Gross, he’d tried beer once when he was over at Uncle Iggy’s house. How could Dad drink it all the time? Maybe his taste buds were scraped off or something. Which reminded him that he was on a fact seeking mission.

“Yev,” Dad whined. “You’re in my way.”

“I got some questions.”

“Ask Dad.”

“I’m asking both Dads.”

Dad looked at him and their blue eyes connected. “Fine. What’s up?”

“I heard some stuff at recess today.”

Dad set his diary on the coffee table and took the remote from other Dad to turn the tv off. “From other kids?”

Yev nodded. “I didn’t believe them, but they said it’s really true.” Both Dads were staring at him now. “I asked them how they know, and they said they heard it from their parents and stuff. Like from adults.”

Dad raised his hand in a flappy thing that he does when he wants to get the story moving along, but Yev didn’t know how to say it. The whole idea of it freaked him out and made him want to stop going to recess. If kids were gonna talk about this then he wanted to stay in and clean the whiteboard!

“Um, it’s too weird.” He chewed on his lip, but then remembered that he couldn’t do that, which made him panic and tears formed in his eyes. He whispered in agony. “They were talking about fairies.”

“Oh,” said both Dads while glancing at each other.

“Oh,” Dad repeated and his long legs dropped to the floor so he could fully face Yev. This disappointed Yev as he was really planning to have a seat there and get a good cuddling session going. He frowned. “Yev,” Dad said, looking him in the eye with a small smile on his face. “Who told you these things, sweetie?”

“Yeah, who’s talking shit to you, kid?”

“Leo and Olivia were talking about it.”

“Yev,” Dad continued. “Kids will say stuff that they don’t really understand and sometimes spread information that’s not accurate. That’s why you have to come to us when you hear stuff like this.”

“Do you know about the fairies?” Yev’s eyes spread wide in amazement, and his voice lifted to a near piercing level at the end of the question. They knew and didn’t prepare him? How could they keep this from him? “Why didn’t you warn me, Dads?”

“Well, we didn’t realize that we needed to yet.”

“Really?” Yev’s eyes widened even further. “But I’m six! Of course, you needed to.”

“Jesus, what kind of shit are six year olds into these days?”

“Yev, why don’t you come sit with us.” And Ian waved him forward.

“K. But can you put your legs in a pretzel again? I wanna sit in there.”

After a moment of confusion, Ian returned to his original position, and Yev climbed into the hole his bent legs created. Other Dad gave him a look like he wanted to sit in the hole but lost his chance. So Yev grinned at him. Loser weepers, he thought.

After winking at him, Dad asked, “So what did these little assholes have to say exactly?”

“Exactly?” Yev responded.

“Yeah, we can’t sort this shit out if we don’t know what ya heard? Right?”

“Oh god, I’m never gonna be able to go to bed again!”

Dad leaned over his shoulder. “What’s in your hand, Yevvy?”

Yev clutched his hand tighter.

“Open it, man.”

Slowly Yev’s fingers opened to reveal a soggy crumpled Band-aid still in its wrapper. He hung his head in defeat. “I don’t want it to fall out!”

“Okay, kid, I’m totally fu-freaking confused. Out with it.”

“Leo said that my tooth was gonna fall out and while I’m sleeping a fairy was gonna come into my bedroom and steal it!” He couldn’t believe that he was having this conversation. “Olivia thought it was totally cool cause the fairy was gonna leave some money, but I said there wasn’t any money in the whole world that makes me wanna have a tooth fall out!” His eyes felt so wide like they’d never close again, but his Dad looked like he was gonna laugh. Yev twisted his neck to look at other Dad. He seemed to be trying not to laugh too. “Why are you laughing?” he demanded.

“Well, we thought you were talking about—” he stopped and his blue eyes met other Dad’s eyes. “Nothing.”

“Everyone loses their teeth, Yevvy,” Dad said from behind him, so Yev picked up his big hand and started picking at a hangnail. “It’s normal.”

“Normal? For me to lose body parts? What other body parts am I gonna lose?” he demanded indignantly. “God, don’t even tell me!”

“What’s the Band-aid for?”

“My tooth,” he said miserably. “I was gonna wrap it up so it doesn’t fall out.”

Dad’s hangnail hand wrapped around his waist and pulled him against his chest, so he could push his lips into Yev’s hair.

“Can I see how wiggly it is?” Mickey asked leaning forward to look at Yev’s mouth. “Open up.”

“NO!” Then his lips came together like steel trap and tears came back to his eyes.

“I ain’t gonna hurt you, but we gotta know how wiggly it is. Like if it’s close to coming out or if it’s gonna fall out in your sleep or some shit.”

“What??”

“I mean, I mean – just open up and let me see.”

Yev shook his head.

“Come on, don’t be a—” he stopped. “Don’t be afraid. I promise to be very careful.”

“This is normal stuff, Yevvy. We all lost our teeth so new bigger, stronger teeth can come in. It doesn’t hurt.”

Yev squished his eyes shut and opened his mouth enough for Mickey to rub his finger against his lower incisor. It wiggled a little but held firmly in place. “It ain’t comin’ out tonight.”

Yev pretty much sagged in relief at that news. “Soon?”

“Few days, I’d say.” Yev watched his favorite eyebrows raise with the information. He knew the eyebrows were asking if he understood. “I could help you get it out.”

“NO! I’ll wait.”

“Good idea. Let that shit happen naturally. Not like when I was kid. Tied a string to the door and bam!” Mickey’s hand smacked against the palm of his other hand. Yev was horrified at this story.

“Mick.”

“I didn’t say we were gonna do that, did I?”

“Okay, now you want to talk about the tooth fairy?” Dad’s voice was close to his ear.

“I guess,” he said with a sigh. “I don’t want some weird fairy coming into my room while I’m sleeping.”

“No fucking kidding. I’d hate that too, man.” He chuckled and other Dad’s chest rumbled under Yev’s back. “Well, I don’t think there are any rules about where you leave your tooth. You wanna leave it somewhere else or you wanna tell the tooth fairy to take her crazy ass to some other kid’s place. Like fucking Leo’s?”

“How much money is on the line?” Yev asked, while his finger came to the loose tooth and examined it.

“25 cents,” said Dad.

“Five dollars,” said other Dad at almost the exact same time.

“Five fucking dollars? What’s his tooth made a? 12 carat gold?”

“So you guys don’t know either?” Yev asked incredulously.

“I guess it’s up for discussion among the goddamn fairies.”

“Okay, Yevvy, do you have any other questions?”

“Um, yeah. Like how big is this fairy?” He lifted his index finger. “Does she have real wings?” He lifted his middle finger. “Why do they want teeth? What are they doing with them?” He lifted his ring finger but had trouble keeping his pinky finger down and lost count. Ian tried to help him, so Mickey decided to shoot down the questions while they were distracted.

“Look, no one has ever seen the tooth fairy, so we don’t got answers for you.”

“What?? You’ve never seen this fairy? How do you know it’s a fairy then?” He voice was raising again in panic as images of things scarier than a fairy came to his mind. “Maybe it’s not a fairy! Maybe it’s something worse!”

“Yev, man, calm down.”

“I hate this. It’s so stupid.”

“Buddy, listen to me, okay?” Dad said from behind him, and he turned Yev slightly in his lap so they could look at each other. Before he continued, though, his dads had a staring contest involving lots of eyebrows and head nodding. “Okay, here’s the deal, but you have to keep it a secret.” But then Dad stopped and couldn’t continue.

“Chicken,” other Dad said. “Yev, man, we’re the fairies.”

“You and Dad are fairies?” Yev looked at them like they had actually grown wings—from their foreheads. “I’m six not three. I know you aren’t fairies cause fairies are little and they fly. I never seen either of you fly.”

“We’re not actual fairies. But we’re tooth fairies.” Mickey tried backtracking.

“What??” Yev’s eyebrows joined Mickey’s. “You go into kid’s rooms and steal their teeth?”

“Nah, we’re not actual tooth fairies.”

“You just said you were tooth fairies! Why are you lying? Lying is bad!”

By now Ian was laughing so hard that his leg chair was shaking Yev.

“Why you laughing, asswipe? Help me out here.”

“You’re doing great on your own, sweetie.”

“Sweetie my ass. Yev, what I mean is—”

“I get it, Dad,” he said calmly and patted Mickey’s arm. “You’re saying you’re a fairy so I’m not scared of the tooth fairy. You are tryna protect me, Daddy.” He reached over to Mickey’s neck and pulled him in.

“Well, yeah, but I really am the tooth fairy.”

“Okay, Dad.” Yev gave him a big wink, but both eyes closed.

Yev watched his Dad flop back against the couch like he’d run really far really fast, which was funny to think about. “So I heard something else today.”

“Fucking hell.”

“Go on,” other Dad patted his arm, but another laugh escaped and landed in Yev’s ear making him laugh too. So Ian tickled his ribs and they had a short giggle fit. “Okay, so what did you hear?”

“The grade fourers were talking about it and they were super unhappy. One of them even swore.” He explained. “I don’t think I wanna go to grade four. Can I skip it?”

“It’s a ways away. Let’s decide when you get closer. What were they talking about that has you so worried?”

“Fractions,” Yev said in a very serious, solemn voice.

Both Dads sighed. “Shit, yeah, I say we hide you for a year and skip that grade,” Dad agreed then picked up the beer to take the last swig. Yev watched the bump on his throat go up and down. When the bottle was empty, he added, “I’m pretty sure I didn’t make it to much of grade four and I turned out pretty fucking awesome.”

“Mmhmm.” Yev heard beside his ear again.

“Really?” He shouted in glee. “Can I skip grade 2?”

Mickey jumped up and scooped him out of Ian’s pretzel legs. “Bedtime. Your mother is gonna ask if you were in bed by 8:00 and you never wanna lie to that woman.”

“Mama likes her claw hammer,” Yev laughed.

“Gimme a kiss,” Dad said from the couch, and Yev leaned down to smack lips. Ian roared loudly and Yev roared back. As they made their way to the bedroom, the living room lights dimmed. Dad looked back at other Dad. Yev watched his eyebrows lift, so he ran his fingers along them in fascination.

“Whatcha got in mind, Gallagher?”

“Just thought I’d turn the lights down low.”

“Don’t touch my lights! I hate the dark,” Yev yelled directly into Mickey’s ear.


End file.
